Have you made up your mind to transition to Google Workspace? Well, you are already past the first crucial step to the world of intense collaboration and communication. Google Workspace is the best collaboration suite, providing a great option to foster teamwork and boost productivity. There is a major shift in the working culture from employees in offices to working from home. In such times, the need for collaboration is paramount. Services like Google Meet, Google Calendar, and real-time editing on Google Drive documents make your team’s life easier.

If you are already using a messaging and collaboration suite, you might need to migrate data, primarily email, to Google Workspace to ensure business continuity. If you are reading this article, you must be using Google’s free consumer Gmail accounts.

There are a couple of options that you can use to do such a migration. We have helped more than 900 customers do such managed migrations with us smoothly. You might be wondering how to migrate data from Gmail to Google Workspace.

Here are some of the pre-requisites you should ensure before starting the process:

1. Access to your gmail.com account handy

2. You have already signed up with Google Workspace and have verified your domain.

3. You can access Google Admin Console, preferably as a super administrator.

4. You have the target Google Workspace account created already.

If you have these prerequisites, you should be ready for the migration.

Below are some of the available options to use for migrating email from consumer/free Gmail accounts to Google Workspace:

Migrate from Gmail to Google Workspace – Do It Yourself using the Google Data Migration service

Once enrolled in Google Workspace, Google’s native Data migration tool can help you migrate the users. Here are some steps to get you going:

1. Log in to the Admin console and click on “Data Migration.”
2. Select the option “Set up Data Migration.”
3. Start configuring source connection settings by selecting the data migration source as Gmail.
4. Click on Start.
5. Enter migration date – last 1 year, 6 months, or any custom date from which you want to migrate emails.
6. Choose relevant migration options as deems fit
7. Click on “Select Users”
8. On the next screen, select “Add User,” enter the Gmail address as the source email and click “Authorize.” On clicking, you will be prompted to login into your Gmail account.
9. After logging in, you should review the permissions requested by Google Workspace for authorization and click “Allow.”
10. Copy the authorization code and paste it into the “Authorization code” field in the Admin Console. Google generally allows up to 10 minutes to copy and paste the code.
11. Once you authorize and enter the destination email account, your migration will start, and you can see the emails appearing in the destination.

The whole migration uses the IMAP protocol to migrate data. The movement of data takes some time, depending on the amount of data present on the source account. You can occasionally refresh to see the progress bar and completion percentage. If you have multiple users to migrate data from, you will need to repeat steps 8 and 9. Steps 1 to 9 act like a placeholder for the migration that contains all the configuration details, while steps 10 to 11 help to repeat the process for more users.

At the end of the migration, you also receive a report of the migration statistics to give you a confirmation and overview of the migration process.

Migrate from Gmail to Google Workspace – Do It Yourself using Cloudasta’s Free Self service Migration tool.

We know data is important, and you don’t want to risk losing data as part of the migration process. Considering that, we have developed a reliable free migration tool for you to undergo a self-service migration. The tool is straightforward to use.

You can use it for free and unlimited usage, you can bring your existing subscription to Google Workspace to get managed by our awesome team of experts at no extra cost. You must be wondering why we do it for free. Google partners with many companies like us so that we can provide value to customers as their partners. We support you with administration and audits and provide expert guidance and tips on using Google Workspace effectively. You can use our free tool during your time with us to get all your data migrated for as many accounts as you need.

Cloudasta’s managed migration service.

Have you heard of managed services? Cloudasta also provides managed migrations services that not only include email but other services as well. You can prefer to do a hands-off secure migration with us while you watch your data get migrated seamlessly without any effort.

We can migrate services like Contacts, Calendar, Drive, and groups apart from standard email migration. We have been tenured and trusted Google Cloud partner since 2013 and have managed migrations for many customers over the years. You can expect zero downtime, robust change management, and expert assistance from our team with the managed migration while you focus on other important aspects of growing your business. We are always open to having an upfront discussion of your requirements, any watch points to be aware of, and caveats that you foresee for this migration. Having experts on our team experienced in this domain, we will be able to address your pain points promptly.

Overall, considering these options to migrate to Google Workspace and understanding how seamless it can be, we bet you wouldn’t want to keep using free Gmail. Even if you are a small business or an individual, Google Workspace provides many tools to simplify your life and streamline your business needs. Take the plunge today and enjoy a different level of collaboration and communication with Google Workspace.

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